Enter the Canon EOS 1000d

Also known as the Canon XS

Now before all you Fuji users pop a gasket this article is about photography on a very limited budget. Have I abandoned Fuji all together …. No.

I am however not in a financial position at present or for the short term to enable me to step back into a mirorrless setup. I didnt want to repeat my experience with the XA2 by going into an XA3 which didnt provide one thing that I was hoping to see in the XA series and that was PDAF auto focus. That for me was a killer as far as the XA line goes. Hopefully when the time comes and they shift from Contrast detect AF to Phase detect AF they will again be on to a winner.

The Fuji range finder style bodies just dont do it for me. Yes they are very good cameras but I find them uncomfortable to use, I much prefer the XT style bodies but even a used XT-10 will set you back well over $1000.00 NZD with a basic lens, so the Fujis arent really an option.

I’m aware that there are sometimes very well priced cameras on E-bay but when you factor in the freight to New Zealand thats not really an option either. There are however some bargains to be had on our own NZ Trademe site and I was lucky enough to nab a bargain.

One lightly used Canon EOS 1000d bought at Auction for $200.00 NZD. Shutter count is 2700 plus about 150 I’ve added just messing around. One 18-55 mm EFS IS lens and one EF 75-300 mm lens, plus a nice sized kit bag to tote a bit of gear around. You will note that the 75-300 isn’t image stabilised. The plan here is to buy a EF-S 55-250 IS lens and use the bigger lens as a tripod only tele. Theres currently three of these lenses on auction a present so I’m hopeful of snagging another bargain.

One of the things I liked about the 1000d was the size, its only a tiny bit bigger than my HS20 so with the 18-55 bolted on the front it will feel familiar, size and weight wise with the bigger zoom lens available as an option. My preference has been to try and find something that afforded the same level of image quality as my XA2 in a similar body size but alas nothing other than a small DSLR like the 1000d or the K-X from Pentax really comes close. Had I missed out on the Canon, the Pentax KX was an option with a buy now of $275.00 NZD, however this only came with the 50 – 200 mm telephoto lens and for local bird photography the 75- 300 mm when tripod mounted will hopefully be the better option. The other overriding factor is the simplicity of the Canon which will help with getting my wife confident with the camera as she is a complete photography novice, so the Canon will be a good fit.

I wont bore you with all the specs and such with the camera, just click the link above and you get a review and the specs. Below is a series of images I took over the past 2 days. Most are crops some as much a 60% of the original image. All are hand held using both lenses, all but one are RAW images processed and saved as jpegs. Images were processed using Showfoto a photo editing package that I am liking more and more as I get used to it. It works with the canon RAW files very nicely and of course its free software.

Full image processed from RAW

EFS 18-55 shot using macro setting

60% crop processed from RAW

Image processed from in camera jpeg. Color artefacts and noise evident when viewed at 100%. Handheld at 300 mm